LA HIJA DE RAPPACCINI

Note from the Conductor

Daniel Catán’s La hija de Rappaccini was the composer’s first international operatic success and for good reason. This extremely musically colorful score incorporates many of the sonic elements that would define Catán’s unique style and voice. Similar to his most popular work Florencia en el Amazonas, Catán’s score constantly illustrates the action on stage through his writing in the orchestra and vocal lines. Every detail, from bird calls to walking up and down staircases, is cleverly composed into the music creating a wonderful aural painting that pairs perfectly with the actions described in the libretto.

The original opera employs a rather large orchestra helping define Catán’s style, often referred to as being somewhere between Puccini and Debussy but with a sense of forward-looking modernism. Catán later created a chamber reduction of the opera (the version being used in this performance), making the work more accessible for opera companies of all sizes. Fortuitously, it also works well for those companies trying to perform opera during a pandemic. The chamber version calls for an orchestra made up entirely of instruments from the percussion family. Two pianos, harp, timpani, and one additional percussionist (who is asked to play dozens of percussion instruments often at the same time) are used to create an incredibly unique pallet of sound that shimmers and sparkles. Catán’s studies in Japan are also evident through his use of octatonic and modal patterns of writing which help transport us into the magical world that is Rappaccini’s garden.

Note from the Director

Never has there been a time so apt to present a show about the inability to touch and the dangers of infection. Daniel Catán’s opera La Hija de Rappaccini is a rare gem.

This production that we created for Chicago Opera Theater proves that opera transcends the boundaries of theatrical performance on a stage and rings ever more loudly in a poetic space. Based on the short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne and a subsequent interpretation by Octavio Paz, the opera follows Giovanni, a young medical student, to Padua far from his home in Naples. Our space for Padua is the Field Museum: a world of floating gardens, Mediterranean architecture, and specimens in glass cases. It is a dry, stony, earthy place, devoid of the sea that Giovanni misses. The uncertain times of the late 1930s serve as our context.

From a room above, we can place the viewer with Giovanni as he becomes curious about the gardens below and in the air. It is the work of Rappaccini, a mad doctor who performs outlandish experiments on people and plants. Once the young Giovanni is lured into the garden, the cavernous and dark space highlights Beatriz’s separation from the outside world. Giovanni’s presence opens her eyes to the dark reality of her father’s experiment for which she has been the subject for years.

The false beauty of this night garden is revealed.

In the end, it is Beatriz that takes her life into her own hands, finding refuge in transcendence to another realm. Giovanni must decide if he is to go with her...